Engaging Heritage, Engaging Communities

Description

Across the global networks of heritage sites, museums, and galleries, the importance of communities to the interpretation and conservation of heritage is increasingly being recognised. Yet the very term "meaningful community engagement" betrays a myriad of contrary approaches and understandings. Who is a community? How can they engage with heritage and why would they want to? How do communities and heritage professionals perceive one another? What does itmean to "engage"? These questions unsettle the very foundations of community engagement and indicate a need to unpick this important but complex trend. Engaging Heritage, Engaging Communities critically explores the latest debates and practices surrounding community collaboration. By examining the different ways in which communities participate in heritage projects, the book questions the benefits, costs and limitations of community engagement. Whether communities are engaging through innovative initiatives or in response to economic, political or social factors, there is a need to understand how such engagements are conceptualised, facilitated and experienced by both the organisations and the communities involved. Bryony Onciul is Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter; Michelle Stefano is the Co-Director of Maryland Traditions, the folklife program for the state of Maryland and Visiting Assistant Professor in American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Stephanie Hawke is a project manager and fundraiser, working on a range of projects aiming to engage communities with cultural heritage. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction • Bryony Onciul Engaging Concepts 1 The Gate in the Wall: Beyond Happiness-making in Museums • Bernadette Lynch 2 Assembling Communities: Curatorial Practices, Material Cultures and Meanings • Philipp Schorch 3 Interview – John Tunbridge 4 Interview – Gregory Ashworth 5 Engaging with Māori and Archaeologists: Heritage Theory and Practice in Āotearoa New Zealand • Elizabeth Pishief 6 Horizontality: Tactical Politics for Participation and Museums • Helen Graham Engaging Creatively 7 Re-imagining Egypt: Artefacts, Contemporary Art and Community Engagement inthe Museum • Gemma Tully 8 Interview – Evita Buša 9 Interview – Shatha Abu Khafajah 10 Engaging Communities of De-industrialisation: the Mapping Baybrook and Mill Stories Projects of Baltimore, USA • Michelle L. Stefano and Nicole King 11 Interview – Ashley Minner Engaging Challenges 12 Embattled Legacies: Challenges in Community Engagement at Historic Battlefields in the UK • Justin Sikora 13 At the Community Level: Intangible Cultural Heritage as Naturally-occurring Ecomuseums • Michelle L. Stefano 14 Subaltern Sport Heritage • Gregory Ramshaw 15 Museums and the Symbolic Capital of Social Media Space • Julian Hartley 16 Relational Systems and Ancient Futures: Co-creating a Digital Contact Network in Theory and Practice • Billie Lythberg, Carl Hogsden and Wayne Ngata 17 Interview – Conal McCarthy List of Contributors Index